While the debates of the first term of Iranian Parliament- the National Consultative Assembly, or Majles (1906-1908) - have long been an important source for historians and other scholars, no serious effort has ever been undertaken to try and properly understand this historical source. As a result, a number of misconceptions exist about the debates of the early parliament and what survives as their minutes. The present paper aims to dispel some of these misconceptions by focusing on two issues: 1) whether - and to what extent - what survived to our day (by the virtue of being published in the Majles newspaper) should be considered the official minutes of the parliament; 2) what were some of the characteristics of the later edition of the minutes published as the supplement to the Official Gazette of Iran. This is achieved by the careful analysis of a number of sources, mainly the debates themselves, legal documents, periodicals and memoirs.

The article presents the EU legislative procedure and decision-making processes with a special emphasis on decisions regarding energy policy. It has been pointed out that most of the energy related legal acts, including the renewable energy directive and those aimed at the gradual reduction of emissions of harmful substances, are adopted according to the ordinary legislative procedure. However, special legislative procedures apply in the case of international agreements between the European Union and third countries. The trilogues, i.e. meetings of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council, aimed at reaching a common position before the first reading in the EP, are of great importance in decision making. The article also discusses the problem of energy policy and its impact on the environment, recalling the relevant articles of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union. The most important paths of influence of the Member States on new legal acts in the context of energy policy have also been shown. This is an extremely important issue from the investors’ point of view, since projects related to the energy industry have a very long payback period, so the stability and predictability of the Community’s energy policy is of paramount importance to them. The possibilities of shaping new laws related to energy at the stage of preparing a regulation are discussed later in the article. The work of parliamentary committees, especially those related to energy, i.e. the ITRE (The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy) Committee and ENVI (The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) has also been discussed. In addition, the article clearly shows different approaches of Western European countries and the Central and Eastern European countries (including Poland) towards energy issues.

The article offers a discourse-analytic examination of original (English) and interpreted (Polish) versions of several extracts from plenary speeches by three Members of the European Parliament (Janusz Korwin-Mikke, Nigel Farage and Guy Verhofstadt). Controversial statements that have met with adverse reactions of the audience and/or the media are selected for analysis. The author endeavours to assess the degree to which pragmatic equivalence has been achieved by Polish interpreters. Another pertinent question is whether the identifi ed shifts are due to some systemic differences between the pragmatics of the source and target languages or to other factors, such as the constraints typical for simultaneous interpreting or specific, local problems.

The Parliament of the Republic of Poland was one of five European parliaments which – in view of the full-scale aggression by Russia against Ukraine which commenced on 24 February 2022 – adopted resolutions declaring the Russian Federation as a state associated with terrorism. The Polish acts are consistent with resolutions adopted on the same subject by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament of the European Union (EP).
Although not legally binding, the adoption of these resolutions have a large symbolic dimension and may have a negative impact on the perception of and possibilities of Russian participation in the international arena. From the Polish perspective, the national decisions linking Russia with terrorist activities will influence decisions taken within the sanctions regime, as well as with regard to the legal qualification of certain acts under Polish criminal law in the course of proceedings conducted by Polish prosecution authorities in relation to the war. Finally, as long as the war continues and the assessment of Russia as a terrorist state remains in place, it will not be possible to restore and maintain ordinary diplomatic, economic and other relations with that state.

On 19 August 2021 died Professor Henryk Olszewski, born 2 January 1932. The Deceased was one of the most renowned specialists in history of law and polish parliamentary tradition, especially during the reign of Wasa dynasty. His knowledge based on analysis of manuscripts and constitutions of Polish Diet of XVII century. Professor Henryk Olszewski during all his life was connected with Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where he graduated in 1954. All his life reflected the changes in politics: the Stalinist era, real socialism and finally the III Polish Republic. In Poznań, after the “thaw” of 1956 he started as an assistant, wrote his doctoral thesis in 1959, qualified for an associate professor in 1976, received the title of full professor in 1986. His career was connected with state policy in the field of higher education. In 1956 he was appointed to teach the history of political and legal doctrines, and he had to begin anew, although he never left the history of Polish parliament. In the new field of active research, Professor Olszewski became an excellent expert of German political thought, especially of XIX-th and XX-th century. His life was full of different activities and functions. He was the dean of Faculty of Law and Administration (1975–1978), member of Polish Academy of Sciences, and of Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also an active member of many international bodies, among them the most important was the “International Commission for Teaching of History” and the Commission for history of European parliaments. His publications count more than 700 titles, and he was active in more than 300 cases as a professor conferring a doctoral degree or reviewer in habilitation procedures. For over 40 years, Professor Olszewski was an editor in chief of “Czasopismo Prawno-Historyczne”, one of the best Polish scientific periodicals (Legal-Historical Periodical). His personal feature was his attention to the history of legal and historical science of institutions and scientists, he was even known as “custodian of scientific memory”. His extraordinary knowledge and scientific excellence were recognized by the scientific world – he became doctor honoris causa multi, Professor Henryk Olszewski received the title at Europa-Universität-Viadrina (2001) and at Jagiellonian University (2011). Adam Mickiewicz University renewed his doctor title in 2015.